Various companies are in the process of developing and deploying systems designed to allow end users to perform operations via client devices (also called access points) such as mobile phones, triggered by reading machine-readable codes such as linear (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) barcodes. For the purposes of this specification, such systems are referred to generally as messaging systems (and in the case of barcode scanning as Optical Messaging Systems (OMS)). Some examples of the operations that might be triggered by a machine-readable code include, but are not limited to:                Launching a web browser to a particular URL        Dialing a telephone number        Sending an SMS        Displaying a coupon        
Certain classes of barcodes and their corresponding operations can be properly performed by any access point that is capable of reading the particular barcode. An example of this might be a full URL that is encoded into a 2D barcode such as a DATAMATRIX code. Any access point that is capable of reading this barcode and extracting the URL would then be capable of launching a web browser to that address. For the purposes of this specification, we refer to these as direct or unmanaged codes.
Other classes of barcodes cannot be processed without the involvement of processes or services not resident on the access point. Where the internal encoding of the barcode data is proprietary, and/or where the data requires interaction with a server-based database in order to complete the operation, an interchange with the issuing OMS is required in order to properly complete the operation intended. For the purposes of this specification, we refer to these as indirect or managed codes.
As OMS systems become more ubiquitous and widely deployed, it is likely that situations will arise in which an access point developed by Company A will be employed by users to read Managed Codes issued by Company B. Because of the requirement for the involvement of Company B's infrastructure, without some interface between this infrastructure and Company A's access point(s), such codes will not be able to be processed.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a methodology and system for providing interoperability between and amongst various disparate messaging systems.